Belgium
Posted to the books your accountant uses
Coded expenses post to Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage or NetSuite with the receipt attached and the VAT in its own account. If your accountant works in other software, expenses export to Excel or CSV.
Smartbills takes the VAT from each receipt line, keeps restaurant costs categorized apart and posts the result to the books.
VAT read from the receipt, line by line
Every line keeps the rate it was charged, 21%, 12% or 6%, with the supplier's VAT number when the receipt shows it. Restaurant and catering costs, whose VAT isn't deductible, are set apart from deductible spend.
- VAT kept per line at 21%, 12% and 6%
- Hotel stays recorded at 12% since March 2026
- Restaurant VAT set apart
Receipts that arrive on their own
Receipts that arrive by email are pulled from a connected Gmail, Outlook or Zoho mailbox, and merchants on the Smartbills network send the itemized receipt at checkout. The month doesn't end with a receipt hunt, and nobody photographs a crumpled receipt on the train.
- Emailed receipts and invoices pulled from the mailbox
- Digital receipts from merchants on the network
- Matched to the card or bank line when it clears
Why teams switch
The tax is on the receipt, not the card statement.
Restaurant VAT keeps ending up in our deduction, then gets reversed.
Each line keeps its category, so restaurant and catering costs are set apart before the return.
Our hotel costs changed rate in March and our bookkeeping still assumes 6%.
VAT comes from each line of the receipt. A hotel invoice is recorded at the rate it was charged.
Employees in Brussels, Ghent and Liège send receipts in three languages.
Receipts are kept in the language they were issued in, and each person uses the app in French or English.
Before and after
What changes on a Belgian receipt.
Restaurant VAT isn't deductible in Belgium, and hotel VAT moved to 12% in March 2026. Two places where an old habit costs money.
| Capability | Card statement and photos | With Smartbills |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant VAT | Deducted by mistake | Set apart |
| VAT on a hotel stay | 6%, as before | 12%, as charged since March 2026 |
| Supplier VAT number | Only if someone kept the paper | Kept with the receipt |
| Getting receipts in | Photos at month end | From the mailbox or the merchant |
Integrations
Works with the tools you already use.
Your accounting software, bank feeds and card program, with data syncing in both directions.
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- Sage
- FreshBooks
- Wave
- MYOB
- Zoho Books
- NetSuite
- SAP
- Oracle
- Dynamics 365
- Square
- Shopify
- Clover
- Toast
- Lightspeed
- WooCommerce
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Adyen
- Wise
- Plaid
- Chase
- Bank of America
- Wells Fargo
- RBC
- TD
- BMO
- Scotiabank
- Desjardins
- Brex
- Ramp
- Float
- Mercury
- Gusto
- ADP
- Deel
- Rippling
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- OneDrive
- Box
- Gmail
- Outlook
- Google Analytics
- Snowflake
- Looker
- Databricks
- Google Cloud
- Metabase
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Notion
- Zapier
- Airtable
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
The products that do the work.
Each product works on its own, and when you run two, the same record carries from the receipt to the ledger entry.
Expense management
Capture receipts, categorize expenses and check policy compliance as expenses are submitted.
Expense reports
Expense report software that attaches the receipts for you, works out mileage, routes the approval and shows each employee when they'll be paid back.
Email receipt capture
Connect Gmail, Outlook, Zoho Mail or IMAP. Automatically collect receipts and invoices from the folders you choose, including Archive and Spam.
Accounting automation
Accounting automation software that codes each transaction and posts the journal entry to your accounting software the day it happens.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before they sign up.
21% standard rate, 12% on items such as restaurant meals and, since March 1, 2026, hotel stays, and 6% on essentials such as food, medicines and books.
Generally no. VAT on restaurant and catering costs isn't deductible for most businesses. Smartbills keeps each purchase categorized so those lines are set apart before the return.
No. Since January 1, 2026, invoices between Belgian businesses must be structured e-invoices, usually sent over Peppol. Smartbills isn't an access point. It handles receipts and expenses and posts coded expenses to your ledger.
Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage and NetSuite, with two-way sync. If your accountant works in other software, coded expenses export to Excel or CSV.
Yes. You invite your accountant with their own access, and a firm that manages many clients sees them all from one login, entities included.
Your data is stored in Canada, which the European Union recognizes as providing adequate data protection, and we don't sell it. Access is limited to the people you invite.
Get started
Check a month of Belgian receipts.
Connect a mailbox and a card. Restaurant VAT is set apart before it reaches the return, and hotel stays come in at the rate they were charged.